


Heat in the Winter

by WakeUpDreaming



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Team Dynamics, Trapped on a mountain, just so much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:52:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5308172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WakeUpDreaming/pseuds/WakeUpDreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team gets trapped on the top of Mount Washington after reports of the weather instruments in the observatory failing, and the tiny cabin they have is so cold that Happy just can't stop shivering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heat in the Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "Could you do a quintis prompt in anticipation for 2x13 "white out"? With cuddling for warmth involved? ;)" (ps @ Scorpion writers can we please have cuddling for warmth in 2x13 please? It's cute. It's a high quality trope - does wonders for ratings. It's super shippy, and even when it isn't Cabe and Sly cuddling for warmth would be downright adorable. PLEASE.)

“It won’t start,” Happy says, kicking at the car. “What the hell did you do?”

Toby looks at her with absolute befuddlement. “How is this my fault?!” he asks.

“I don’t know, you’re easy to blame,” she says, but a smile escapes her lips.

“Oh, now we’re making fun of the Toby,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Wonderful. Glad to be the comic relief.”

Happy opens the car door and steps outside, looking around the engine to find something, anything that's a problem. She finds a tiny slice in the fuel line - small enough to for nobody to notice, but large enough to let gas drain out in trickles to get them stranded. Happy’s teeth chatter as she works at the van, but the only thing she can figure out is that the car was sabotaged. Her fingers are shaking as she closes the hood, her many layers not standing up to the New England temperatures.

“It’s been tampered with,” she says, her teeth nearly biting her tongue. “There’s nothing I can do, guys. The gas line was cut just enough to get us here and leave us here.” She throws down the wrench. "We're stuck."

“Fantastic,” Walter snaps, looking frustrated. “We’re never getting back.”

“Oh, we’ll get back,” Toby says. “We just need to wait until morning so it's warm enough to hike for help."

Happy shivers so hard her entire body shakes. Toby's concern is written on his face like a book. "Let’s go back inside – Happy looks like she’s going to freeze.”

“I’m f-f-f-f-fine,” Happy says. Toby stares at her. “I see your point.”

They walk back into the cabin, and the only reason it’s warmer inside is because there isn’t any wind. Sly, Paige, and Cabe are sitting on the couch in their winter gear, looking hopefully up at Happy.

“Nope,” Happy says. “We’re not getting out of here until somebody comes to get us.”

“Why would they cut the fuel line?” Paige asks.

“Because,” Cabe says, dropping his head, “it looks like the weather observatory didn’t go down on its own. Somebody must have sabotaged the equipment, then targeted us once they found out we were coming.”

“Oh, that’s great,” says Happy. “Now we’re alone at the top of a mountain in New Hampshire with nobody to save us because we’ve got no cell service.”

Paige groans. “I think another question is who is sabotaging and why.”

Toby throws himself face down onto the couch and groans, and Happy fights back a smile as his face squashes right into the cushion. “How come an easy mission to fix a weather vane turned into this?”

The next problem they run into is how everyone is going to go to sleep.

The whole team is frozen, but Happy seems to be the only one visibly shaking from the temperature. Toby wraps an arm around her shoulders, and even in a hoodie and jeans he’s radiating more heat than a space heater. She’s grateful, but isn’t sure what she’s going to do once they go to sleep and her body temperature drops violently.

“I have blankets in the car,” Cabe says. “I’ll grab them.”

“Right behind you,” says Toby, and when he leaves Happy genuinely feels the cold hit her like a brick.

“You okay Happy?” Paige asks carefully.

She nods. “Just a little cold,” Happy replies. She stands and bounces on her toes, trying to generate a little bit of heat to keep her bones from getting stiff.

Toby and Cabe come back in with snow in their hair, their faces bright pink.

“So,” says Toby, “the snow has increased. By a lot.” He shakes his head and water and snow sprinkle the ground around him.

"We could tell, Captain Obvious," says Sly, "from your appearance."

Apparently the storm has gone from snow with some wind to a full on blizzard. It can’t be more than forty degrees in the cabin, and there is one bedroom in the tiny cabin. One.

Paige wins rock paper scissors and gets the bed, and nobody questions it when she and Walter go in there together.

“Oh, they get the bed,” Toby says with an eye roll. “I get the floor, but they get a bed.”

“Tobes, there’s a couch,” Happy says.

He stares at her. “Yeah,” he says, “but you get the couch.” It's so authoritative that it seems like there had been some sort of discussion previously.

“Why do I get the couch?”

“Yeah,” says Sly, “why does she get the couch?”

Toby glares at everybody. “Because I didn’t see any of you geniuses standing in below zero weather trying to fix a damn car for forty-five minutes.”

“That’s a good point,” says Sly, nodding at Happy. “You deserve it. Please enjoy your couch.”

Cabe just nods and accepts it, but Happy isn’t ready to let it go. She watches as everyone sets up blankets and pillows, and she feels a little strange just getting the only decent sleeping spot without doing anything.

“Why did you insist I get the only other comfortable sleeping arrangement?” Happy asks, feeling strangely defensive. “I don’t do anything more than everyone else does.”

Toby looks floored. “You do more than all of us do,” he says sincerely. “We wouldn’t get anywhere on time without you. You design and build literally everything we need on the fly whenever we ask for it, and when somethings broken you immediately fix it like it's nothing.” He leans in close. “Don’t tell the others, but I kind of feel like you’re the most important person on this time.”

Happy stares at him. “Excuse me?”

Toby shrugs. “I calls em like I sees em.”

She frowns. She wants to ask if there’s another reason, if the way they are together, they way they almost were is a reason.

And then she realizes he’s resting his head on the floor, using his jacket as a pillow.

“Take this,” Happy says, throwing her pillow at him with way too much power. It smacks him directly in his face.

“First off, ow,” he says, moving it from his face, “but thank you. Are you sure?”

“Just take the damn pillow,” Happy demands.

Toby smiles at her so sweetly it hurts her a little bit. “Thanks, Hap,” he says quietly, “sleep well.”

She nods. “Yeah, you too.”

“Hitting the lights,” says Cabe. “Bright and early tomorrow. If there’s any change in the snow, we’re making our way out of here ASAP.”

The cabin goes dark, a blackness you can only see in the emptiness of New England wilderness, and Happy can’t tell the difference if her eyes are open or closed.

It doesn’t matter anyway – she can’t stop shivering. Once they stopped moving, once everyone relaxed enough to get to sleep, the cold wrapped around her and she just couldn’t warm up.

She leans down and grabs her jacket, pulling it on over her three layers of shirts and hoodies, but the material just makes her feel colder.

Her teeth start audibly chattering, and she burrows as far as she can into the couch, hoping for morning.

“Happy?” Toby whispers into the dark. “Are you okay?”

She tries to say she’s just cold, but her teeth chatter so violently that it just sounds like rapid clicking.

“Alright,” he says, “scoot over. The human wood stove is here to save the day.”

“What?” Happy asks. The lack of light makes it impossible to see, so the rustling in the dark confuses her. “What are you doing?”

He pats the couch. “Scoot,” he clarifies. “We’re gonna share body heat.”

Happy wants to protest, but she’s so damn cold that she’ll try anything. “Okay,” she concedes. She presses herself against the couch.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Toby says, settling in next to her, “but you need to lift up your blanket so I can actually get you warm.”

Happy whines. “Too cold,” she says.

“Are you whining?” Toby teases. “Is Happy Quinn whining?”

Happy reaches back and blindly swings her hand. “Okay, that was you smacking my ass,” Toby says. “But I’ll let it slide. Come on.”

Happy shivers harder than ever when she lifts the blanket, but the relief and comfort she feels when Toby slides in next to her and drapes a third blanket on top of the two of them is so wonderful that she sighs.

“Better?” Toby asks quietly. His breath is hot on her ear and she shivers for a different reason.

“Yeah,” she admits. “I might be able to sleep now.”

She doesn’t fight him when he wraps an arm around her waist. She’s just that much more comfortable.

Sleep floods over her likes another blanket, and she's not sure she's ever felt better.

* * *

 

Happy wakes up the next morning comfortable and warm, her face buried in something soft. She blinks open her eyes to realize she’s hardcore cuddling with Toby. Sometime in the night she had pillowed her head on Toby’s arm and pressed her face against his chest, and his other arm is holding her tightly to him. She’s amazed they fit on the couch, but their legs and bodies are so intertwined that they’re basically one person. His fingers are brushing against her skin under her clothing.

She feels hot for a different reason when she sees how close they are and tries to steady herself before she reacts. She doesn’t want this to end. She realizes she’s so comfortable for reasons more than warmth – she likes waking up in Toby’s arms.

She exhales shakily as she tries to process the feeling.

“Ho boy,” she says quietly.

Toby shifts next to her, and her eyes flutter as his fingertips curl gently into her side.

Oh, she’s a freakin’ goner.

“You okay?” he murmurs, his voice rough with sleep.

Now Happy’s just getting full on annoyed with how into him she is. This isn’t fair. He can’t give her the couch and then warm her with his body heat and not expect her to lose her mind.

“You’re the worst,” Happy says definitively.

Toby’s eyes fly open. “Did I do something?” he asks, panicking. “Oh, god,” he shifts. “I’m so sorry, that just happens to guys and I didn’t mean –”

Happy snorts. “Not what I meant. I just – I put all this effort into not falling for you. And then you do stuff like this.”

He blinks. “Come again?”

She leans up and kisses him, saying fuck it to morning breath, fuck it to waiting, fuck it to all this hesitation. She’s warm and comfortable because of him, and she just needs to accept that.

She wants Toby.

“Okay,” Toby says, pulling away just enough to rest his forehead against hers. “Am I dreaming?”

Happy changes a shift of her leg against him and he turns his head to press his face into his arm.

“Nope,” he says, his voice a little breathless. “Not dreaming."

She laughs at the way his fingertips curl more tightly into her skin. They’re covered in blankets and wearing a million layers of clothing, but somehow she still feels closer to Toby than ever.

“Can I kiss you again?” Toby asks.

Happy shrugs a shoulder. “What do you think?”

He leans in, his lips gentle and soft, and she tries to get even closer to him. Honestly, they couldn’t be any closer, but Happy’s still trying.

Their kisses are lazy and sweet because both of them know that, soon, they’re back out in the cold. His hands are warm as they rub up her back, fingertips lighting her skin on fire as they trail along her back. She sighs into his mouth as they press together, all too aware that they've got limited time before they have to go work.

Even so, neither of them are prepared for Cabe’s screaming alarm to blare.

It’s loud enough that both of them jump, and with the way they’re entangled they both roll off the couch and crash on the floor where Toby had made his bed, Toby landing directly on top of Happy.

“The hell are you two doing?!” Cabe exclaims. He’s already wide awake and standing, looking like he’s been up for hours. “Get your asses up!”

“Trying,” Toby says. He’s flat on top of Happy, one arm pinned behind her head, and it takes them a couple of seconds to get themselves untangled.

“I was expecting this kind of trouble from Walter and Paige,” Cabe grumbles, shaking his head. “I thought you had more sense, Happy.”

“Yeah, well I was freezing and Toby’s warm,” she says, sitting up. “Not my fault my space heater’s a good kisser.”

Cabe rolls his eyes and shrugs on his jacket as he walks to the door.

Toby looks like a kid on Christmas morning. “You think I’m a good kisser?” he asks.

“Space heaters don’t talk,” Happy says, raising an eyebrow. “But yeah. You are.”

Toby’s glee extends through the mission which includes Happy having to stand on his shoulders to reach a dismantled instrument, and when the rescue vehicles come, Happy insists he sit next to her.

“I should warm you up more often,” Toby says, clearly meaning it innocently, “you’re all nice right now.”

Happy rolls her eyes and grabs his hand. “I’ve got some better ideas for how to warm me up,” she mutters into his ear.

The glee fades into something a little different as he registers the innuendo. “Oh yeah?” Toby says. He licks at his lips. "What do you have in mind?"

Happy shrugs. "You'll just have to find out when we get back."


End file.
